Laguna Beach's underage-drinking law has quiet first year

“We go to a house,” he said. “We find it's a bunch of kids drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. There was no adult supervision inside this home.”

In fact, he said, the mother was at home: Officers found her hiding in a closet. She had been partying with the kids.

The decision before police is whether to arrest the mother on a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a difficult charge to prove to the District Attorney's Office.

Kravetz said police wanted more local control over such situations. Their solution: a “social host ordinance,” a local law that establishes punishments for adults who knowingly supply alcohol to minors.

A year ago this month, after much debate, the city of Laguna Beach voted 3-2 to adopt such an ordinance. It is one of seven cities in Orange County with the local law.

Police can still pursue criminal charges, Kravetz said, but the ordinance offers administrative or civil penalties – a class for first-time offenders and fines – that can be meted out within city limits.

Since passing the ordinance, Laguna Beach hasn't seen any violations, he said.

Why?

The debate and education leading up to the adoption acted as a deterrent, Kravetz said.

Some parents worried that police would be able to walk into a party at a home and arrest the host if a minor were found drunk in a back room. Police emphasized there must be evidence the alcohol was supplied by an adult.

Most cities with such regulations haven't had more than a dozen violations since passing the ordinances. Irvine, however, which passed its ordinance in December 2011, has had 18 violations. Mission Viejo passed its law in 2008 and has had 12 violations since.

“In the two years I've been here, we have not written any social host violations,” said Lt. Tom Behrens, in police services at Laguna Hills. The city adopted its law in 2008.

Laguna Beach police said the law was in response to a small number of families they encountered in the field. With the law, those incidents have basically stopped. But it's also been only a year.

“We're not noticing some of our previous problem people having these parties as much anymore, or at all, because we have this tool,” Kravetz said.

Opponents like Tammy Keces, a parent of two Laguna Beach High School students, said that if there have been no violations, “What was the point of it? “There was no evidence to begin with and no evidence to prove otherwise.”

It's hard to quantify, Kravetz said, but if you look at the numbers – they are down.

With eight days left in the year, police said, party calls were down to 256 in 2013 from 300 in 2012. No juveniles were detained for public intoxication in 2013, according to numbers from Dec. 23.

Police say the ordinance gives them a local form of enforcement, instead of going to court for a criminal violation.

Resident Howard Hills helped shape the ordinance to address concerns from opponents, including himself. He still disagrees with it but says it's the “best social host ordinance anywhere in Orange County and maybe anywhere in the nation.

“But I still believe it's not a statute for us to have on our books.”

He said he doesn't like the law because it doesn't address drugs and gives police a “vaguely defined degree of discretion and subjective standard for enforcement.” He said it also will discourage parents from supervising parties.

“The problem with drugs and alcohol hasn't gone away. It's still there,” said Laguna Beach Unified School District board member Bill Landsiedel, a proponent of the ordinance. “It was just supposed to be a reminder to parents to not serve underage children alcohol.”

Landsiedel's son, Andrew, who attends Laguna Beach High School, disagreed with his father during the debate preceding the law's adoption. Andrew Landsiedel argued the ordinance would amp up tension with police and cause teenagers to drink elsewhere. He said it wouldn't address underlying social issues, such as a lack of activities for minors in town.

Bill Landsiedel said the dialogue continues in their household, with both sticking to their respective positions.